Of all the music halls in all the towns in all the world, fiddler Jay Ungar and guitarist Molly Mason will walk into Katie Trautz’s on Sunday afternoon.
And the first-year director of Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts, whose predecessor booked the show, can’t wait for the workshop that the First Couple of Americana dance music will lead at Chandler Music Hall between noon and 2 and then the concert that they’ll play at 4.
“I had a love affair with their music as a high-schooler,” Trautz, who grew up in Cabot, Vt., and graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 2000, recalled last week. “I was a contradancer and singer and after my dad got me their CD The Lovers’ Waltz, I started learning the fiddle. Their music really inspired me to move forward with my own music career.”
Ungar and Mason, who married in 1991, have been inspiring musicians since Ungar started his Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camps in upstate New York’s Catskills in the early 1980s. The demands on their time grew busier still after Ungar won a Grammy Award for his soundtrack to Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The Civil War — highlighted by his mournful tune Ashokan Farewell — in 1991.
“We don’t do nearly as many summer festivals as we used to,” Mason said last week during a telephone interview from their home base of Saugerties, N.Y. “We’re so busy at the Ashokan Center, teaching at our camps, we don’t do as many outdoor things as you might think. We manage one or two summer festivals a year.”
The rest of the year, when they’re not preparing for the summer camps or recording, Mason and Ungar make a point of devoting weekends to mini-tours.
“Although it’s work, there’s a certain vacation aspect,” the Bronx-born Ungar said. “There’s something about connecting with people all over the country, with music we care about, that is so gratifying. It’s one of the things that make life worth living.”
Especially when they play venues like the Chandler.
“We were driving through Randolph about 10 years ago on the way to somewhere else, saw the hall and thought, ‘We’ll want to play there someday,’ ” Ungar said. “So this is kind of a dream come true. We love playing small, opera-house-type halls in small towns.”
“It was just such a beauty,” Mason chimed in. “It’s a little smaller than other places. Certainly not tiny, but it feels intimate. We maybe even stood on the stage. We walked around, and got to hear what it sounded like, saw what the light was like. It was really nice.”
During their workshop and their sound check on Sunday, Ungar and Mason expect to renew acquaintances — with the venue as well as with musicians they’ve inspired during previous appearances in the region.
“There’s something warm and comfortable about the place,” Ungar said of the Chandler. “There aren’t that many that are more than 100 years old, where you can look back over decades. You feel like you’re connecting with other human beings.
“It has good ghosts.”
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason perform at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Sunday afternoon at 4. For tickets ($5 to $25), visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464. From noon to 2 p.m., they will lead a workshop for fiddlers, guitarists and other musicians interested in playing waltzes and other dances. The workshop is free for members of the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra and $30 for others.
At the fourth stop on his tour of North America, Franco-Algerian acoustic guitarist Pierre Bensusan plays his blend of classical, folk, jazz and other genres tonight at 7 in the historic Sunapee Livery Building at 58 Main St. in Sunapee. Admission by donation is $20.
For more information, visit sunapeecoffeehouse.org or call 603-446-3426, ext. 11.
Tonight at 7 in Dartmouth College’s Loew Auditorium, the Hopkins Center will screen Peabody Award finalist Thomas Allen Harris’ new film, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. The documentarian is serving a Montgomery Fellowship at Dartmouth, and will lead a discussion after the screening. For tickets ($5 to $9) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield raises the curtain on its staging of Nicky Silver’s adult-themed, family-dysfunction comedy The Lyons with 7:30 shows tonight, Friday night and Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon at 2:30. The production runs through May 22. For tickets ($25 to $32) and more information, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750.
On Friday night at 6 at Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts, Bess O’Brien, director of the 1995 documentary A Journey Into Courage, screens clips of the film and talks with one of the six women she filmed sharing their stories of surviving domestic violence. Lawyer Wynona Ward of Have Justice Will Travel, a Vershire-based nonprofit that provides legal and support services for low-income survivors of domestic violence, also will join the discussion of how laws and attitudes have changed over the last 20 years and what challenges remain. Admission is by donation; the doors of the Chandler’s Esther Mesh Room open at 5:30. For more information, visit safeart.org or call 802-685-3138.
The Main Street Museum in White River Junction hosts the annual Spring Fashion Show on Friday night starting at 7. An after-party dance marathon will follow the parade of clothing by such Upper Valley designers as ReneFrancesG, Kenny Paige, Mark E. Merrill, Sophie Kirpan, Allyce Good and Alyssa Couture. Admission is $25. For advance tickets and more information, visit mainstreetmuseum.org.
Singer-songwriter Chris Isaak brings his “First Comes the Night” tour to the Lebanon Opera House on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($59.50 to $98.50) and more information, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall hosts “The Next Generation,” its eighth annual showcase for young central-Vermont musicians and singers, on May 13 at 7:30 p.m. To reserve tickets ($10 to $16) and learn more, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Pianist Will Drebitko will deliver his second annual concert benefiting Woodstock’s Norman Williams Public Library on May 14 at 10:30 a.m., on the library’s mezzanine. In addition to playing classical, jazz and folk compositions, he will talk about their origins and their writers. Admission is by donation to the library.
As a benefit for the Center for the Arts’ programs and scholarships for students in the Lake Sunapee region, five prominent residents of the area will join forces with professionals from the Newport Ballroom Dance Studio for the “Dancing with the Lake Sunapee Stars” contest on May 14, at Colby-Sawyer College’s Sawyer Theater in New London. Before the contest, which starts at 7, there will be refreshments and a silent auction, the list of which is viewable at centerfortheartsnh.org. Tickets at the door cost $30. For advance tickets ($20 for members of the Center for the Arts, $25 for others), visit centerfortheartsnh.org or New London’s Morgan Hill Bookstore or the Tatewell Gallery. For more information, email info@centerfortheartsnh.org or call 603-526-4444.
The acoustic-rock trio Second Wife and the Haywire string band will perform at Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts on May 14 at 7:30 p.m. For general admission tickets ($12) to the show in the Esther Mesh Room, and more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Northern Stage lowers the curtain on its production of Living Together, the first leg of the company’s collaboration with two other Vermont theater companies on Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy The Norman Conquests, with performances at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction at 7:30 tonight, on Friday and Saturday nights and at 5 on Sunday afternoon. For tickets ($30 to $55), visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Pentangle Arts and ArtisTree Community Arts Center cap their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats at Woodstock Town Hall this weekend, with performances on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2. Broadway veteran Ken Prymus reprises his role as Old Deuteronomy, with several Upper Valley performers in the supporting cast. To reserve tickets ($17 to $30) and learn more, visit pentanglearts.org or call 802-457-3981.
As part of Lebanon Opera House’s Youth Education Series, Theatergroup Kwatta performs the play Love That Dog at the opera house on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. at the opera house. Aimed at students in grades 2 to 8, the play, adapted from a book by children’s author Sharon Creech, follows the journey of a boy who develops a knack for poetry with the help of a determined teacher and a dog.
Tickets for school groups cost $6 a person for orchestra seats and $4 for balcony seats, with one free ticket for every 15 paid. Meanwhile, individual tickets are $6 for children and $10 for adults. To reserve seats and learn more, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Sensible Shoes plays at Lampscapes in White River Junction on Friday night at 5:30.
On the theme of “Make Our Garden Grow: Seeking, Finding and Building Our Sense of Home,” the Thetford Chamber Singers perform three concerts this weekend with a repertoire ranging from works of Bernstein and Palestrina and of Vermont composers to two of John Hodian’s compositions on the Armenian diaspora. Shows are scheduled for Friday night at 7:30 at the North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock and for Sunday at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church on Thetford Hill. Advance tickets cost $8 to $12, and are available at Norwich Bookstore and at Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, or at thetfordchambersingers.org. Tickets at the door are $15. For tickets ($12) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Guitarist-songwriter Robby Krieger, co-founder of The Doors, leads his current band into the Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H., on Friday night at 7:30. For tickets ($44 to $49) and more information, visit flyingmonkeynh.com or call 603-536-2551.
On Saturday in Montpelier, the Green Mountain Youth Symphony holds the first of three auditions for its three orchestra programs and for its summertime Creative Arts and Music Program (CAMP) for school-age musicians. To schedule an audition or learn more, email info@gmvs-vt.org or call 802-888-4470 or visit gmvs-vt.org.
The Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble plays works of Joseph Turrin, Yasuhide Ito and Ferrer Ferran on Saturday night at 8 at Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover. For tickets ($10) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The Valley Chords Chorus is inviting aspiring singers to their weekly rehearsals at Northern Stage’s Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction on Wednesday nights from 6:15 to 8:15. The chorus, a chapter of Sweet Adelines International, is gearing up to perform at the Hanover Center Old Timers Fair on June 24. For more information, email jcsolger@yahoo.com.
The Sensible Shoes duo of Barbara Blaisdell and Tim Utt plays and sings at the Canoe Club in Hanover tonight at 6:30. Following them to the microphone with 6:30 to 9:30 shows over the coming week are guitarist Ted Mortimer on Friday, pianist Randall Mullen on Saturday, pianist Bob Lucier on Sunday, guitarist Tom Pirozzoli on Tuesday and pianist Gillian Joy on Wednesday. On Monday night starting at 5:30, Marko the Magician performs his weekly, tableside sleight-of-hand.
Bill Temple pulls into Windsor Station tonight from 7 to 10 to lead the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Next up over the coming week are Funkwagon on Saturday night at 10 and The Rough and Tumble with a country set on Tuesday night at 6.
Australian singer-songwriter Grayson plays at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8, followed next Thursday night at the same hour by the Mike Parker R & B Duo.
Singer-guitarist Randy Budner of the Loose Cannons Band performs a solo set at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday night starting at 5.
Woodchuck’s Revenge plays bluegrass, country and blues during the Sunapee Community Coffeehouse in the Sunapee Methodist Church on Friday night at 7. While admission is free, donations are welcome.
The Friday night lineup at the Upper Valley’s Salt hill pubs feature acoustic rocker Bob Rutherford in Lebanon, the multi-genre dance band Club Soda in Hanover and pop-rocker Jim Hollis in Newport. On Saturday, the choices are the Conniption Fits in Newport, bluesman Arthur James in Hanover and Frydaddy in Lebanon. All shows start at 8.
Jazz bassist Peter Concilio leads guitarist Billy Rosen, saxophonist Michael Parker and drummer Tim Gilmore into Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night at 8.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights starting at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.